Population Dynamics of Onchocerca Volvulus Microfilariae in Human Host After Six Years of Drug Control (Report‪)‬

Introduction Onchocerciasis is a major public health problem in Nigeria. It is caused by infection with the filarial parasite Onchocerca volvulus. It is estimated to affect over 17 million people in 26 African countries with 3.3 million residing in Nigeria (1). There has been considerable interest in the way and manner by which parasites are distributed in their host. The pattern of spatial dispersion of a population and its descriptions are of considerable importance for understanding population dynamics and this is particularly true in the field of epidemiology where aggregation of a parasite population with respect to their hosts appear to be ubiquitous (2,3). In human communities, it is typical for about 15% of individual to play host to about 80% of the helminth parasites (4). When considering host-parasite relationship the host provides a convenient spatial sampling unit, count being made of the number of parasites concerned (5).